Thursday 27 December 2007

Post Christmas

Post Christmas or should that be Christmas post?

It is 9 days since my last post, I’m getting withdrawal symptoms!

The reason, I took on knitting a hat, scarf and mitten set for my dear Grandson.
The weather had suddenly turned cold and his Mum found it difficult to get something to fit well that was also warm. It seems there were plenty knitted ones for babies and then others for older toddlers but nothing suitable to fit Oliver
So Grandma stepped in to knit a good warm set

Even though I was not posting I did keep up with all my blogging friends
reading and commenting and enjoyed the decorations and good wishes

Now I am curious to know how other people spent the Christmas season

I felt that my Christmas began when I sat down in the evening, a few days before Christmas to watch a couple of my favourite Christmas D.V.D.’s
The Snowman and The Sound of Music

On Saturday we went out Carol Singing in our neighbourhood with a group from church
We got a very mixed reception
I remember in years gone by where almost everyone would come to their door
And ‘join the party’ as it were
However I believe it is still worth doing as a reminder of what Christmas is really about

Sunday we enjoyed a Carol Service and children’s Nativity play
followed by Mince Pies and Mulled Wine

Monday the usual enjoyable carols from Kings College, Cambridge
Christmas Day dawned with torrential rain that lasted
most of the day
and it was one of those days when it hardly gets properly light all day
I much prefer cold and crisp

Our son came over for the day
We have our present opening over morning coffee
Our Christmas dinner begins at 1.30pm
and we finish in time for the Queen’s Christmas broadcast on TV at 3.0pm
with our coffee and mints
(for anyone interested in other countries one can now watch the Queen’s speech on You Tube under “The Royal Channel”)

The rest of the afternoon was taken up watching
The Wizard of Oz on TV
and then a bracing walk after dark in order to have some appetite for evening tea

After tea my usual ritual of playing Scrabble with my son
We usually are a pretty good match for each other but this year he won by 80 points

Then on Boxing Day we did the whole thing again as Jane came over with her husband Chris and baby Oliver with our son joining us again
Our activities were slightly different though
with a 16 month old joining in

While Alan stayed behind in the afternoon and cleared the dishes and Jane went for a rest
I was to be found on the children’s swings in the park with my Grandson and son, and son-in-law and yes, I did go on the swings

Just one other thing happened in the run up to Christmas
Have you ever caught your ear in the car door?
Believe me it hurts indescribably
I need to slow down, I am known to slam the door shut before I have actually got into the car

So, this was pretty much Christmas in our household this year
Do tell me about yours


Oliver's Hat Scarf and Mittens
The reason I have not posted recently

Now I know that my Ralph Lauren plates do not go with my Christmas table cloth
but these are 12 inch plates
I just cannot fit Christmas
dinner onto my normal 10 inch dinner plates
The main course consists of Roast Turkey,
Sausage with Cranberry and Pork stuffing
wrapped in Bacon
Sage and Onion Stuffing
Bread Sauce
Honey Roast Parsnips and Carrots with Rosemary
Savoy Cabbage sauteed in butter with Cummin seeds
Roast potatoes with Rosemary and Lemon Zest
A brown pouring Gravy made with Turkey stock
A very light starter that does not fill one up
Pink Grapefruit grilled with wine, butter and brown sugar
For dessert, Christmas Pudding with Custard, Ice-cream and Brandy Butter
Mince Pies for those with room left
Coffee and Mints











17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lucky grandson :-)

Sounds like you had the perfect Christmas.

Willow said...

This year our Christmas was small. There were just three of us for Christmas Day. 10 minutes to open presents after a yummy coffe cake for breakfast. Hang around and drink more coffee. Call family. Dinner at 2pm: tritip and salmon on the barbie, baked potatoes, fresh green beans sauteed in olive oil and almonds, green salad. Visit friends on the Gerry Ranch. Home to eat dessert--boysenberry pie and ice cream. A lovely quiet day.
Nicely knit cap and scarf set for Oliver.

Anonymous said...

How darling are those knitted things for Oliver!
Christmas at our house always centered on the Eve. Light meal, church service, coming home in the cold night, opening presents with lots of laughter, and then a late night meal. Christmas day is spent quietly with our toys and eating all the food that's accumulated over the last days.

My roomie's family celebrated mainly on Christmas Day. About 7 years ago when she and I moved into our current house, we decided to give her parents a break and host Christmas Day at our place - Christmas breakfast, reading of Luke, presents, puzzle, games, a big Christmas dinner, then more games, maybe a drive out to see Christmas lights on homes, and then a light supper. This year, we had the addition of a Chinese friend who's learning English. So we taught her the games and laughed as she gained skill and won!

Michelle-ozark crafter said...

Wonderful pictures! Sounds like you are keeping busy. We had a quiet Christmas here. had a nice meal and watched some old movies and just enjoyed each others company.

Linda said...

What a full and family filled Christmas you had. Mine was very very quiet and, I have to say, it was very strange when my husband's children and grandchildren came over. I would have posted on it on my blog but they read it. I've decided to never again be here in Paris for Christmas-that's how bad it was. Oh well. Not the end of the world. www.lindamathieu.com

Betty said...

Barbara,
A delightful Christmas from all accounts......and lucky Oliver...

On Christmas Eve, we went to our daughter's home about 150 miles away to attend Christmas Candlelight Service with her family, back to their home for a delicious meal with other guests....Christmas breakfast....then by a hospital to visit....home to see our next door grandchildren's gifts....off to a Royal Christmas party, called in to visit other friends.....the next day all of our family, 14 of us had out Christmas evening meal together and opened gifts in our home.....our out of town daughter and her son will be with us until Saturday so I have 10 more plates set at the table for meals......beause all of the grandchildren want to eat and play together.....

How is your ear? Blessings, Betty

Linds said...

Your Christmas sounds perfect, Barbara! I love the thought of you on the swings too! I hope your ear is ok! It sounds excruciating.

Lorrie said...

Glad to see you back blogging. What a beautiful knitted set you made for Oliver.
Your Christmas sounded wonderful.
On Christmas Eve we attended church, then went to our daughter-in-law's parents' home for an open house. Home to bed, then up in the morning to open stockings with our one daughter who lives at home, have breakfast and wait for the others to arrive.
Lunch with the whole family, so nice, then opening presents, a walk, snacking, playing games. We had a lovely day.
I didn't cook a traditional dinner this year - you can read about it on my blog. I'm missing the leftover turkey, but didn't miss the effort on the day.

Susan Skitt said...

Oh Barbara, what a delightful (except for the slamming of your ear in the door - ouch!) time. You make a lovely meal, yum, and it was fun to hear about what you do in your family and country.

We love to carol too, even though, like you said, not many people now days know what to do when it happens. After our church caroled at a nursing home, we went to an elderly family in the neighborhood. They enjoyed it immensely and one couple a few doors down, opened their window and door to listen. Everyone else didn't bother. A shame really, but we all had fun nonetheless, singing praise about Christ the King!

Christmas day, our tradition has been staying home with the boys opening their gifts. My husband's mom, a long time widow, joins us for the morning, then we go to her house for Christmas dinner, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, rolls, gravy, and ususally pumpkin and apple pie, except this year, Jim's sister and family who travels up from Maryland made cheesecake. Jim's brother and wife travel over to join us for dinner also.

Tonight, Friday night after Christmas is my family, the Zweitzig family get together with my parents, grandparents, sisters and brother and their kids. It always makes for a great time, although a bit noisy with all the little ones, ten grandkids in all. Dinner is usually casual, homemade macaroni and cheese, sloppy joes (hamburger barbeque on rolls), a veggie tray and fruit tray and sweets such as chocolate chip cookies. In fact, I need to start getting ready for that now.

Thanks for sharing your Christmas with us and inviting us to do the same. Happy New Year my friend!

From damp and slightly rainy, (definately not white and snowy) Pa, USA.

Jeanne said...

Blessings
It sounds as if you had a fabulous Christmas season.
Much love and many blessings
Love Jeanne

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Your menu is delectable! I think I need to go buy a turkey and roast it. We missed out on that this year because we spent Christmas Eve with my son's in-laws and had a wonderful Mexican style feast, complete with poncha (special hot punch drink with exotic fruits and spices) and tamales, paella, creamy noodles, spicy beans, ham and other goodies. Lots of lively music, laughter and getting to know about 20 these people we hadn't met before. In a way it was slightly stressful, because everyone was a stranger, but in another way it was fun and it was good to be with my son and his wife and her family.

Christmas Day was quiet with just CT and me. Watched some traditional (and beautiful) Christmas music shows on TV (Mormon Tabernacle Choir, St. Olaf's College, etc.)We didn't have anything special for a meal but I made a delicious cranberry pudding cake for dessert, with lots of walnuts and brown sugar.

Thank you for sharing your Christmas. I like reading about what everyone did to celebrate.

Linda said...

What a lovely knitted set you made for Oliver. Your Christmas sounded wonderful with lots of memorable family events happening.

Our daughter and boyfriend flew from British Columbia (over 3000 miles to the west of us)to spend Christmas with us and our other daughter & family. She got to meet her nephew for the first time. They taught us a dice game called 10000 ... lots of laughing. We had lots of lovely meals - roast beef on Christmas Eve, turkey for Christmas Day and ham for Boxing Day.

We have lots of wonderful memories till we see them again ... hopefully in the summer.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Kim S in SC said...

Oh, I do love reading about how Christmas is spent in another country! I am from south carolina. We have a traditional southern Christmas dinner. We have turkey and ham, corn bread dressing, sweet potatoe casserole (pretty much sweet potatoes with a lot of sugar and a brown sugar and pecan topping), pineapple casserole (bread, pineapple, sugar(again), eggs), black cherry jello fruit salad, green beans. For my dad who is from New York, I added mashed potatoes and peas. All this smothered, I mean served, with turkey gravy.
Christmas Eve we spend the day cooking together, go to a candlelight service at church, come home and have potato soup, read the Christmas story and then all watch a christmas movie together.
Christmas morning we open gifts, eat breakfast, then get ready for the Christmas afternoon feast. A good movie that one of the children unwraps is how we spend the afternoon.

Anonymous said...

Although we are on opposite sides of the world my dinner was much like yours.
6am up to unwrap pressies. Carols from Kings College on TV. Bacon and egg breakfast. Off to Mum's for family gift giving. 3pm Lunch at my sisters till 8.30!! Prawn cocktails, tomato soup, roasted turkey with glazed ham and roast vegetables, Christmas pudding with brandy custard and/or brandy cream followed by coffee or Alka-Seltzer.
9pm home with the boys watching a Christmas movie.

For the first time in many years every family member came to dinner, we had 17 which included my Dad's brother who is visiting from the UK. We are truely blessed.

Paula said...

What a beautiful Christmas you had. Oliver is a lucky boy to have a Grandma to knit him such a fine set of hat, gloves & scarf. The dinner looked awesome. Too bad you live so far away, I'd like to drop in for tea!

a woman who is said...

Your Christmas sounds so lovely and relaxed. I love all your traditions of carols, music, and church. You are quite the knitter, but that doesn't surprise me anymore. You are such and interesting woman with many talents. Check out my blog for some of the details of our Christmas. One thing we do very differently is our traditional meal is lasagna and meatballs on Christmas day. My Italian heritage and family will permit nothing else. We had the whole gang and one last minute guest, a friend of my son in laws.
Thanks for sharing your traditional English Holiday.
Can’t wait till baby Eden is old enough to swing with, how fun!

paru's_circle said...

coming over to your place , next xmas! ;-)
all the best for the New year to you and yours